Improving Sleep Pattern

I wish I had a magic wand to say that it will be better, and that will happen. Mine is 15 months, no day/night is the same. She sometimes sleeps until 6-7 or sometimes we are up a 3,4,5, it depends on the day and what is going on. At 4 months they still may wake for a bottle, maybe until 6-7 months then get a better pattern. Try to feed her as late as you can like at 10-11 and then she should sleep a long time. You just can't make them sleep longer, I know I have tried it all.... They sleep/eat/cry when they want. I wish I could help, but know that we are all out there doing it too. Take care.

First of all, consider putting her to bed much earlier. I'd say between 6-7! I know it seems crazy, but my son starting sleeping 11-12 hours a night once I did that. He was around 4 months, and rarely woke up for a feeding! That early bedtime keeps babies from getting overly tired, and lets them get a really solid night of sleep.

Also, make sure your daycare is getting her to nap as well as possible. Soon, she'll be ready for a nap schedule. And she probably will need 2-3 good naps a day. This will also help her night sleep!

Finally, be ready for crazy sleep ahead no matter what you do. Soon she'll be rolling over, sitting up, getting teeth, crawling, etc. All that stuff, in addition to the nasty colds she's going to get for a while from daycare, will have an enormous impact on her sleep. If you stay consistent, she will find her way back to her good patterns. But it's not easy for baby or mama! :)

At some point, you may want to teach her to soothe herself to sleep. But not until you think she's ready. She may be too small/young right now. Every baby is different on that score. Also, you may want to eventually stop swaddling her, too. She's getting bigger and stronger, and it will become an issue when she wants to roll over!

Good luck! She'll figure it out!

She may also be compensating because you are not with her all day. My daughter woke up more at night to breastfeed once I went back to work. She needed that time with me and because I wasn't there during the day she changed her patterns and wanted to nurse more at night. I don't think one time waking up at 4 months is all that uncommon.

Hi D., Besides the cold and the new environment with day care your baby may also be teething at this time. Four months is so young to be sleeping through the night. You are lucky she did before. I know you are working and need your sleep, but the baby needs you too at this time. Too bad we cannot go back to the days when mommys could do just that until the children grew up. Respectfully, Grandma Mary

First of all, try putting her down at 7 because 8:30 is way too late. The earlier they go to bed, the longer they sleep. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it works.
Second, stop the swaddling. She should be free to move around in her sleep and swaddling is going to hamper her development and keep her from getting strong enough to roll over, sit up, etc. Slowly over the next month or two she has to learn how to fall asleep on her own and start to learn some self-comfort techniques, so by swaddling, you are keeping her from doing that. You can gradually do this over about 5-10 days by removing one arm at a time. Then you can switch to a sleep sack so she is still covered and warm enough but she can still move around.
Once she gets to 6 months old, you can start putting a tiny blanket or stuffed animal in the crib for her to hug and snuggle with at night. This helped my son since he did not take a pacifier either.
She is also going to wake up a little more than she used to simply because of her age. At this time babies begin to be aware of their surroundings and will wake more often. They also may start teething around now and may have some pain at night. So all this is totally normal and age-appropriate. It's ok if she still wakes up once or even twice a night at 4 months. Just make sure that when she does wake you have as little interaction with her as possible. Keep the lights low, don't talk to her a lot and just change her, feed her and put her back to bed.
Overall, it sounds like she has good sleep habits for her age. I would not worry so much. From now on, I have found that once you have a routine down for a month or so, it will change again. So there is constant tweaking of the schedule and you have to be flexible.

This might sound counter intuitive but she may need to go to bed earlier. I remember my daughter needing to go to bed around 6:30 or 7 at that age and she actually slept better and longer. However, you may not get that 7-8 hour stretch at this age because she is going through massive brain development and growth and may need to eat more often during the night. Remember that the scientific definition of sleeping through the night is 5 hours without waking.

You said you put her down at 830. You also said she gets cranky at 8. Try putting her down before 8, when you first start to notice the "tired signs", eye rubbing, fussyness, yawning, etc. Start the bedtime routine right then, this will not only help her sleep longer (I know it sounds weird to put down earlier to help sleep longer, but it really does work!), but it will also get her into a nighttime routine to make sleeping better down the road.

Hi D.! This sounds so much like a request that I posted last week! Funny how so many babies do the same things around the same time! my daughter is five months old, was sleeping great until I went back to work about a month ago, and now is waking up once or twice a night. She is also swaddled. Tonight for the first time, I tried putting her in a sleep sack instead. I'll let you know how it goes! Let me know if you try putting her to bed earlier. I also received that advice, but it doesn't seem to work for my daughter. Anything before 8:00 just leads to a lot of fussing and me being in with her until after 8:30 anyway. But I'm going to work on it. Anyway, glad to know I'm not the only one who swaddles, and I will let you know how the sleep sack works out.